


Quiet

by Piasan



Category: Chihayafuru
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piasan/pseuds/Piasan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taichi needs some quiet</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> Revised Version: 06.June.2017.  
> Slight warning: I have not read the manga, I have not read related fanfiction, I haven't even been able to get through the whole show :S But I love Taichi. Yes I do :)

 

"Ooooohhhh! This is just _so frustrating_!" fumed the girl walking beside him. Taichi could almost picture the steam rising off her head.

"No," he said coolly, meant for no one else to hear, since Chihaya was obviously too far into her mental wandering. His eyes set forward, uphill, slightly blinded by a large, annoyingly beautiful orange sunset before them. " _This_ is frustrating." He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her. Or scream like a child. Anything for her to shut up.

But Taichi was becoming a master at ignoring her tirades. Or to be more precise, he was mastering tuning her out whenever she got all fired up about— 

"You could at least look at me for a change..." she was trying the hurt approach now. Really. He knew she did it without meaning to. Still. It didn't make it right. She was such a self-involved brat. 

He focused on being blinded by the sun and not looking at her. He was _not_ looking at her. 

Suddenly, she was no longer beside him. He turned his head ever so slightly, just so he could undo it if she caught him paying any attention to her. Or at least deny it. At this point, his cool was all he had left. She was dragging her bags behind her. Figures. Easy to fire up. Easy to discourage as well. He walked back a few steps to where she stood. 

"Here," he mumbled, unaffected. "I'll take this one". He took the largest bag from her. It was heavy. They'd been away for all of five days. And just the two of them. Only, not really… And to think he’d felt some excitement at the prospect of being alone with her for almost a whole week. 

He started walking again. Tough, walking uphill. A few seconds later, he heard her steps a couple of meters behind him. 

Taichi had fallen into a sombre mood at breakfast. It had lasted all though their check out, and all the way to the train station. He'd been moody on their first train, and then on the station where they'd waited for the second leg of their trip. And then it’d gotten worse. He wanted to whine, the way she did when she didn't like something. He wanted to be loud and be heard, and maybe even wanted to be patted on the head for his efforts. Pat. At the very least. It would be nice for a change. He was fed up of being taken for granted. Because, that’s exactly what it was, wasn’t it? He was always there for her, supporting her, training together, helping her unravel her thoughts, unconditionally. Or perhaps not to unconditionally after all. Perhaps he did want something in return for balancing her out, at the expense of his own peace of mind. He was human after all, and selfish, too. But he tried his best. 

But nooooo, it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Her world had stopped the very second _he_ had shown up. Of course. And Taichi’s presence had been reduced to something akin to shrubbery. Unless she’d needed him to pull her out of her own moods. Of course. He’d always known, obviously. But he’d never felt it quite as keenly as he had during this tournament. It’d broken him in a way he couldn’t understand. And this had made him upset and annoyed and totally unable to deal with her. 

Mostly, he hadn’t been able to deal with the chatter that Arata’s presence at the tournament had produced. And the round admiring eyes. Even though he’d been preparing himself for it. Even though their friend’s presence had been there since the moment they’d qualified, months before. So finally, he'd ended up avoiding her. For a few days now. Or he'd been decidedly giving her the cold shoulder when the former wasn't an option. Which had been often, considering. Like now. Refusing to engage. It was starting to wear on her, he could tell. Sadly, it was starting to wear on him, too. He… He’d actually started to miss her. But that path led nowhere, he knew. Although, perhaps… Perhaps he should stop, end their trip on a good note.  

He snorted quietly. Like it would make a difference to her. It’d taken her three days to catch up to the fact that he was ignoring her, after all. 

_Three freaking days._  

And now she just wouldn't shut up about it. She should be a bit more considerate. Maybe he too had things on his mind that he wanted to focus on. Things other than— 

"Ne, Taichi..." he gritted his teeth and continued walking. 

Just… 

"Be quiet", he grumbled, almost without meaning to. 

He didn't turn around to see it, though he could almost feel her cheeks puffing out, her lips pouting, offended. But he was not going to talk about it. 

He definitely wasn’t going to say another word. It was her own fault after all. She had it coming. 

She sooo had it coming... Unfortunately, ignoring someone when they didn't realise you were doing it took a lot less effort, though. 

"Don't blame me, this is all your fault," he said. Shit. So much for cold shoulder. And it’d been going so well, too. "Because you don't even realise I'm here," he mumbled. 

Shit, again. He really needed to shut up, now. 

He wasn't even doing a very good job at being cool anymore. He hadn't meant to slip like that. His dignity was pretty much all he had left. This was all her fault. It was the stress. No normal human being should be expected to bear it as valiantly as he had. 

"Huh?" he could feel her blinking her big eyes at the back of his head. He kept his steady pace. One foot after the other. 

He sighed a little. 

"I'll listen when it's about something other than Arata." 

There was silence for a few moments. Taichi didn’t know if he wanted to feel relieved, or massively disappointed.  

"You're upset about that." she mumbled after a while. 

Taichi resisted rolling his eyes at the sunset.  

"You're so dense,” he said levelly. “Of course I am. And I'm tired and it's frustrating and it makes me upset so just be quiet". 

"I don't see how you being upset is my fault." 

"Just drop it." He said through gritted teeth. Just walking. One foot after the other. Easy. Even if it’s uphill. 

"I don't like it when you're upset and ignore me like that!" 

"I said, drop it." 

"But, Taichi—!" 

Something gave. He inhaled sharply, and turned around abruptly, startling her enough to halt her steps. 

"Then don't ignore _me_!" he said, raising his voice, for the first time in… well, months, probably. 

"I never ignore you! What are you talking about?" she cried. 

They’d startled a few people passing by. Taichi could feel some eyes on them. But after five days of torture, he was beyond caring. 

" _Yes, you do_ , Chihaya!" He dropped the bags almost without noticing. They landed with a heavy thud. Chihaya cringed. " _All_ the time!" he said, his arms spread out for effect. 

"But—how—Taichi!" she was going into whiny mode again. He could hear the desperation in her voice, and see it in her eyes. Oh, son of a... he rolled his eyes this time, his steam all but drained by his little outburst.  

"Ohhh... just—be quiet." He said as he walked up to her, before he could give it a second thought. He grabbed her face and pulled her in, trapping her lips his own. 

His heart was beating noisily, he could even feel its rhythm behind his closed lids, and he was a bit out of breath, a bit dizzy. She was tense. And then she wasn’t. And her lips were so _soft_ , moving ever so slowly against his, without any struggles. It was all it took for him to start panicking slightly. But… 

He pulled away, a bit scared. "Finally," he said, his voice so clear and calm and steady that it was almost unbelievable, his hands still cradling her face, "you shut up." 

She blinked, her lips stuck forming a very soft 'oh', as if to follow him, or so he wanted to believe. 

"You're so dense" he said as she blinked a couple more times, her cheeks feeling hot under his palms. 

He dropped his hands, stared at her for another second, daring her to say something, then went to grab the bags and continued walking. He sighed, feeling strangely satisfied. "I can't believe you've never realised how much I like you." 

His back to her, and blissful silence restored to the world, his cool finally returned. He felt relieved, for once. Let her roast and wonder about it. Think it over. And over. He couldn't care less. 

At least for now. 

A little smile wanted to crawl up to his tingling lips.  His hands felt hot. 

And she'd finally shut up. 

Now he could go back to ignoring her in peace.

At least for now.

  
FIN

**Author's Note:**

> Like I warned at the beginning, I have not read the manga, I have not read fan fiction, I haven't even been able to get through the whole show, but I'm in love with Taichi. I have dreams about him. I'd never dreamed of a 2D character before in my life (except perhaps Terry back in the day when I was an innocent little girl, but that's different). I don't care what anyone says :P He's perfect in such an imperfect way. Spoiled and self-centred and selfish, but so naive and innocent and insecure at the same time. I don't know, he vibrates in a very realistic way. Plus, he's cute. And he does things like licking spoons right on Chihaya's face. Swoon. Chihaya on the other hand... She actually does get on my nerves, and Taichi needs a break. Or I can't sleep at night. So this short story popped into my head a while back to help with my insomnia. Thought I'd share in case anyone else was suffering from a similar trauma
> 
> This is it for me on Chihayafuru fandom. I'm still very much hard at work on The Chance of Change. That's Ranma 1/2 in case anyone's wondering :) Comments very much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
